IBM Launches Advanced Analytics Center In China

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BEIJING
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03 Aug 2009:
IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the launch of its China Analytics Solution Center, part of a network of global centers addressing the growing demand for advanced analytics capabilities needed to help clients build smarter business systems and drive improved decision-making.

The initial China center, located at IBM's China Business Innovation Center in Beijing, will draw on expertise from across the company, including experts and consultants from analytics and optimization, mathematics modeling, software engineering and architecture research and consulting. China was chosen due to its status as a global center of economic development and innovation and world-class skills base. The Beijing center will be staffed initially by up to 300 consultants, software specialists and mathematicians, with plans to retrain or hire an additional 300 as demand grows.

The mission of the China Center will support IBM's clients in the Greater China Region to tackle complex business problems by leveraging the full breadth of IBM's capabilities in analytics and optimization, including hardware, software, consulting services and research. It will initially focus on smarter grid, smarter supply chain management and smarter city covering transportation and traffic management, and water management. The China Center will support and accelerate IBM's collaboration with the government, enabling the country's stimulus plan with advanced analytic solutions, helping create high value jobs and nurturing local talent.

"Business leaders today need to move beyond intuition to a more predictive capability and certainty about outcomes. It is now possible to see patterns in vast amounts of data to extract critical insights and move to a new level of enterprise intelligence," said D.C. Chien, CEO, IBM Greater China Group. "Not only does the ability to create smarter digital and physical infrastructures herald the ability to improve the quality of life for our citizens, it is fundamental to improving competitive advantage and delivering economic growth."

The China Center, IBM's first center in the growth markets, is part of IBM's business strategy recently detailed by IBM as the company expands its capabilities around business analytics. IBM opened its first two analytics solution centers in Berlin and Tokyo in June and July, respectively. The other centers will be located in London, New York City, and Washington, D.C. As part of this initiative, IBM plans to retrain or hire as many as 4,000 new analytics consultants and professionals globally.

In these centers IBM will draw upon its vast software information management portfolio, including technologies from IBM Software, mathematicians and advanced analytics experts from IBM research and industry expertise from management consultants in recently launched IBM's Business Analytics and Optimization services practice.

IBM has been working with a number of clients in China to improve their business decision making through advanced analytics. For example, COSCO Logistics, one of the world's leading providers of integrated logistics services, has been working with IBM to implement the advanced optimization and simulation models, which help cut more than 20 percent of logistics costs and reduce more than 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

Additional China Analytics Solution Centers will be opened in the future in leading cities across the country, providing high-end service areas and leveraging each city's specific and outstanding competency.